A common type of electronic mail (xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d) system takes the form of one, or more, computer programs running on a server, which also runs other application programs, such as word-processing, spreadsheet, high-level language compilers, etc.
When a user logs onto the server, to use one of the application programs, the e-mail system may examine the queue of e-mail messages held in the user""s mailbox. If messages are found stored in the mailbox, the system may notify the user, as by a notice stating, xe2x80x9cYou have mail.xe2x80x9d Alternately, if new messages are found, which the user has not accessed previously, the notice may instead read, xe2x80x9cYou have NEW mail.xe2x80x9d
When the user calls for the mail, the system presents a list of the messages stored in the mailbox on the user""s display screen, together with selected information about each, such as the identity of the sender, the date and time of dispatch, and so on. When the user selects a message from the list, the system erases the list from the screen, and displays the selected message instead.
For a person receiving large quantities of e-mail, this procedure can be cumbersome. The person is required to 1) select a message from the list, 2) jump, in effect, to a new screen, which shows the selected message, 3) jump to the list again, to select another message, and repeat the previous seteps.
Other types of e-mail systems eliminate some of these cumbersome features, by maintaining the list of the messages in one region of the display screen, and displaying the selected message in another region. However, even this improvement is seen as lacking in optimality for intensive users of e-mail.
In one form of the invention, a recipient of e-mail messages creates multiple mailboxes, into which incoming mail is automatically sorted, based on criteria established by the user. The user can define conditions for each mailbox which trigger alarms when the conditions are met.